By The River
by VermillionSky
Summary: Can they really just be good friends? Ash and Misty finally realise their feelings for one another, under fine blue skies one summer's day. Please R&R. [OneShot]


_By The River _

_A VermillionSky OneShot_

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_Author's Note: I've always intended on writing a Pokémon piece of fanfiction, but the time nor the idea has ever arisen for me to do so. I was a fan of the earlier Pokémon seasons, but that was well before I started writing fanfiction, and since I've started I haven't actually watched a single new Pokémon episode. And the new episodes have different characters anyway, lacking the charm of the earlier ones. Enough from me, I've finally decided to write a Pokémon fic for two reasons: 1) I have a decent idea for a OneShot, and 2) I wanted to use the idea for something different, other than the usual Final Fantasy and Harry Potter fanfics I've written loads of..._

_Disclaimer: None of the characters or locations are owned by me, and this is a non-profitable piece of writing._

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Ash Ketchum gazed at the blue Kanto skies above him, as he lay there. Thinking about life and things in general. How everything was going. Well? Badly? Averagely? To tell the truth, he found it impossible to pick one word that would accurately describe how his life had changed in the last year. Since getting his first Pokémon, since leaving home on the journey he was still on.

Perhaps "eventful" would have been a good word. But that didn't seem grand enough. It didn't convey just how eventful things had actually been for him. And with numerous Gym badges under his belt, a fair amount of Pokémon captured, and two new friends travelling with him, it had been far more than an eventful year, it had been a tremendous year for him. He smiled to himself, watching the occasional wisp of cloud drag on by in the sea of blue that surrounded him. Or more precisely - surrounded them. Misty was somewhere around. Brock had been with them in the morning, but they had parted ways earlier, meaning to meet up again at the next town in maybe a week's time.

His thoughts spun onto Misty, the lovely girl who'd left Cerulean Gym to travel with him, albeit because she claimed to want him to replace the bike he ruined! The bike had long been forgotten though, and any pretence that she was still travelling with him because if it had long ago ceased. They were good friends now. Ash's smile vanished. They were good friends, and he knew that he should have been happy to have her with him. But recently he'd begun to notice that maybe just being friends with her wasn't what he wanted. At first he'd tried to deny his feelings for her, but he continued to think of her when she wasn't around, and he often caught himself watching her out of the corner of his eye when she was. He'd lost count of the number of dreams he'd now had about her, and despite his efforts not to think about her, the dreams were continuing.

He felt a tear creep into his eye. He'd never have her, not ever. They were friends and that was as far as it went. He knew that he wouldn't dare make a move on her. What if she rejected him? Their friendship would be ruined, and though he wanted more, Ash valued his friendship with her at least.

"Something the matter Ash?" a voice rang out from above him, and shielding his eyes from the sun's glare, he saw Misty standing above him, hands on her hips, looking concerned.

"Uh, nothing," he mumbled. It was obvious he was lieing, and Misty evidently noticed, as she lay down next to him on the grass. The land around was empty, they were in a picturesque valley, a river flowing by, grass, flowers and trees all around them. Possibly the most beautiful place in Kanto, he remembered thinking when the two of them had arrived here. They'd only planned on passing through, but changed their plans and had decided to make camp and stay for a while. Brock had been unable to stay, and had continued on, and whilst Ash would've wanted him to stay, he realised that it would give him and Misty time together. Though why he cared about that was beyond him.

The two friends lay there next to each other, staring into the sky, both lost in their own thoughts. A long while passed, during which the only sounds that could be heard were the chirping of Pigdys and the trickle of the river. It was Misty who eventually broke the silence.

"Ash?"

He stirred from his thoughts, and turned his head to look at her. She was lying right next to him, still staring skywards.

"I've been thinking lately," she continued on, still looking up, "about my life, and what I want in it." She paused for a moment, but spoke again before Ash could say anything. "And I really don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I can't escape from my feelings, and if I don't do anything about them I'm going to explode!"

And with that, she turned to face Ash, who was still looking across at her. Their eyes met, possibly for the first ever time, and in that instant Ash knew just what Misty had been talking about. Her eyes conveyed more than words could ever say, and when he felt her move closer to him, he didn't back away. This was what they both wanted, and they both now knew it.

Her lips pressed against his own, his first kiss. They broke away, looking into each other's eyes once more and smiling. Content. As the blue skies rolled on overhead, a friendship had been broken, only to be replaced by something more... Love.

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_A rare thing indeed, for me to write a T-rated fanfic, but though this one was intended to be another M-rated OneShot, it didn't end up that way, and I felt it would spoil the atmosphere if I were to turn it into a more mature story. Reviews are more than welcome, as usual._


End file.
